‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Returns to Southampton Cultural Center Stage

For the second year in a row, Center Stage at Southampton Cultural Center will help kick off the holiday season in the Hamptons by staging It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play.

Adapted by Joe Landry from the 1946 film directed by Frank Capra, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play is set in a radio studio that is putting on a live broadcast of It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s a (radio) play within a (stage) play.

“Imagine you’re being invited to the Christmas Eve presentation of the radio show that is airing this,” director Michael Disher said last year. “You become part of the event.”

It’s a Wonderful Life is the story of George Bailey, a man who, feeling defeated, contemplates ending his life on Christmas Eve and wishes he was never born. Clarence, an angel who has yet to earn his wings, shows George how different his hometown of Bedford Falls and the lives of his friends and family would be if he never existed.

“It’s all about a man examining his worth,” Disher said, pointing out, “It’s amazing the number of people whose lives you touch.”

The story harkens back to a simpler, more hopeful time, after World War II, he said. It punctuates family values, community and strength.

Showtimes are Friday, November 20, at 7 p.m., Saturday, November 21, at 2, 5 and 7 p.m. and Sunday, November 22, at 2 and 5 p.m. Additional performances will be held during Thanksgiving weekend on Friday, November 27, at 5 and 7 p.m. and Sunday, November 29, at 2 and 5 p.m. in Southampton Cultural Center’s Levitas Center for the Arts, 25 Pond Ln, Southampton. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for students under 21. Visit scc-arts.org or call 631 287-4377.